High Society

GHB can make you happy and horny with no comedown but a millilitre too much can put you in a coma, or be fatal. And whilst you’re more likely to have heard about GHB in the context of the chemsex scene, or its abuse as a date rape drug, there’s a lack of reporting about its prevalence in the dance music scene. We went out to investigate just how widespread GHB abuse has become, and what we uncovered is alarming.

What happens when neighboring countries have completely different drug policies? While Sweden rigidly sticks to its zero tolerance laws, liberal Denmark introduced drug consumption rooms (DCRs) in 2012, with special areas surrounding them where you won’t get arrested for drug possession if it’s for personal use.

Drugs have never been more marketed than they are now. The most recent European Drug Report refers to this as an “uberisation” of the drug market, with it now being easier to order a gram of cocaine than a pizza. But with this ease of access and glossy marketing has come a dark outcome; a sharp uptake in drug use in children, as young as 10. The world has been hit by a wave of deaths of children who have taken Class A drugs such as ecstasy, and many have been found to have bought those drugs on Instagram and Snapchat. VICE’s Tir Dhondy investigates how easy it really is to pick up, and whether it’s possible to regulate this digital wild west.